Windows only: Browse and play the DVDs you’ve ripped to your hard drive using DVD Rip with freeware application DVD Play. Just point DVD Play to the folder DVD Rip is saving your backed up DVDs to, and DVD Play displays them with thumbnails you can browse. Similar to how DVD Rip is a companion application to DVD Shrink, DVD Play works with the free video player VLC to easily play any of your ripped DVDs. Hit the jump for more details, the demo video, and to download DVD Play.
Dear Lifehacker, The only Vista feature (honestly) I hoped that XP could have is a very simple one. In Explorer if you hit F2 to rename a file Vista automatically selects the file name WITHOUT the extension, something that does not happen in XP. I cannot begin to describe how frustrating it is to hit F2+Shift+< -
Windows only: Rip and back up any DVD to your hard drive with DVD Rip, a freeware Windows application that automates the entire DVD-to-hard-drive backup process. All you need to do is insert your DVD, run DVD Rip, and let it take care of the rest. Why? A while back I explained why I’d soured on optical media, the gist of which was the ease with with DVDs are damaged. Sick of scratched, skippy DVDs, I put together a simple AutoHotkey script that automated DVD rips in conjunction with a freeware application called DVD Shrink. I’ve since gone back and drastically improved the original DVD Rip application complete with options and improved automation.
Not only do the editors here at Lifehacker feed your head with a feast of posts every day, every once in awhile we put our programming chops to good use and build custom software for our readers. If you’ve missed any of the Lifehacker Code line of applications, scripts, and plug-ins, here’s your chance to get caught up.
All of the Lifehacker Code projects listed below are free to download, and they’re licensed under the GNU GPL with source available, so we invite you to use, modify, and enhance to your heart’s content.
Windows only: Keep your desktop or any other folder on your hard drive organised and under control with Belvedere, an automated Windows file management tool. Use Belvedere’s friendly interface to create advanced rules to move, copy, delete, rename, or open files based on their name, extension, size, creation date, and more.
Users of the Better Gmail Firefox extension (written by our own Lifehacker US ed Gina) please note that the old version can interfere with functions in the new version of Gmail, as noted in Google’s official help centre here. If you strike a problem, you’ll get a message in Gmail that reads: “Certain Greasemonkey scripts may interfere with Gmail”. I’ve updated our original post about the new Better Gmail 2 to include the instructions on how to uninstall Better Gmail and install Better Gmail 2, so check it out if you’ve had issues, or just want to try out how the new improved Gmail works with the new improved Better Gmail 2 Firefox extension.
Welcome Gmail users! If you see a message in Gmail that reads: Certain Greasemonkey scripts may interfere with Gmail Here’s what to do. Uninstall the original version of the Better Gmail Firefox extension by going to the Add-ons dialog in Firefox’s Tools menu. Then, install the new version, Better Gmail 2, available for download below. From here on in, Better Gmail 2 updates will happen automatically though Firefox—this is a one time manual switchover, due to Google’s recent set of big changes to Gmail. Our apologies for the inconvenience. Thanks for using Better Gmail!
Google updated Gmail, and now we’re following up with Better Gmail 2, a Firefox extension that adds features to the new Gmail interface. Like its predecessor, Better Gmail 2 is a compilation of Greasemonkey user scripts that add features to Gmail, but Better Gmail 2 works with Gmail’s overhauled interface. We’ll maintain the original Better Gmail extension separately from Better Gmail 2, for users still rocking the older version. However, if you’ve got the snappier Gmail interface enabled and you’re ready for some tweaks courtesy of scripters far and wide, hit the jump for the Better Gmail 2 Firefox extension download.
Watch YouTube videos more efficiently with Better YouTube, a brand new Firefox extension that compiles our favourite YouTube Greasemonkey scripts into a single convenient package. Better YouTube smartly enlarges videos for better viewing, hides user comments, declutters the page and disables autoplay (great for vids open in a background tab.) Following in the footsteps of Better Gmail and friends, customise your online video-viewing with Better YouTube.
